Growing, Harvesting and Drying Stevia

Three years ago, I had never heard of stevia. My first experience with it was in the form of cuttings in the greenhouse. I opened the bag and read the tag, "Stevia? What the heck is this?" My co-worker informed me that it was an herb for sweetening. What?!  I ate a leaf off one of the cuttings (we do that from time to time at work, eat the plants. Got to see if they are worth selling!) and was hooked. I jumped in with both feet.

As with all new things I grow, I never do it right the first time. (Must have something to do with that jumping in with both feet). My original plan was to use the leaves to brew sun tea because that's what my co-worker told me they were good for. Didn't bother to do any actual research myself. Here's the thing: I don't like sun tea. Even when I used chai tea, didn't like it. So I grew 2 plants that first season (badly, wrong place) and used basically none of it.

In the meantime, I found Stevia sweetner in the store. Fell in love with it for my morning tea. I have blood sugar issues so I try to say away from sugar and the fact that stevia has a glycemic index of ZERO speaks volumes for it. No other sweetener can say that. And it's natural. 

So I tried again. Planted it in a better spot and did some research. It is a South American plant that likes heat and dryer conditions (yay drier conditions! I can so do that!). And while you can use the leaves throughout the season for iced tea and lemonade, the sweetest leaves don't come until after a frost. Seriously, it's like this plant was made for me!

The hardest part actually was timing the harvest. As you know, weather in the midwest is unpredictable. It can be 70 one day and 20 the next with a major snowstorm on the way. While the leaves gets sweeter after the first light frost, a hard frost will damage the plants. It's needs the cold to get the sweetest leaves, but too cold and your plant is garbage. You can see where timing can be difficult!

Last year, which was the first year I harvested in the fall, I battled the cold to go out and pull those plants up. I had to pick and choose among the damaged leaves to get enough to harvest. Even with that small amount, however, I was able to get enough dried stevia to last about 2 or 3 months. 

Considering that a success, I planted two stevia plants this year. I pretty much ignored them throughout the season except for watering the garden as a whole and pinching back the tips once or twice while I was fiddling with the basil. Pinching back the tips is probably the most important thing to do throughout the season. You don't want the plant to flower before the frost because flowering takes away from the sweetness. Fortunately, stevia is a slow-growing plant and a pinch or two is all it takes to make for a nice full plant and push flowering into the fall past harvest time. 

I believe my stevia may have stayed out in the garden for two or three, possibly four frosts. Honestly, our weather has been so crazy here in Minnesota I can't be sure. It is planted close to my house on the south side so it fared very well despite my neglect. Of the two plants I lost one branch, but no matter, I still had plenty!

Because stevia is not hardy in this area, I just pulled those plants up, roots and all, shook off the dirt and brought them in the house. And then stood there wondering just how I was going to get all these leaves off the stems. Flashback to last year's hunt and pick mission made me tired before I even started. Fortunately, the quality of this year's crop was far superior. I was able to simply hold each stem with one hand and strip off the leaves with the other. It actually went rather quickly. The whole pile took about a half hour or less. In the end, I had a bowl full of stevia leaves and a rather small pile of stems which went into the composter. 

I then ran the leaves through the salad spinner to rinse and dry them. Then, I spread them on paper towels to absorb any extra water. Next step, actually drying the leaves. Every site I've ever read indicates that drying stevia in the sun is the best but in the words of Sweet Brown: Ain't nobody got time for that. Truer words were never spoken particularly when living in Minnesota. It's fall. I had to wait for a frost. The sun might be out, it might not. Chances are it's windy as all hell and it's just bye-bye stevia!

So no, there will be no drying in the sun for my stevia. The oven works just fine (a dehydrator is great if you have one, which I don't). After Googling "how to dry stevia" it seems the consensus for oven temperature is about 140 degrees F. Yeah, my oven doesn't go that low so 170F it was. Normally, it takes about 20 minutes or so to dry a batch but I was drying cranberries at the same time so it took about 40-50 minutes per batch.

Mostly, the process was incredibly passive so although the whole process took about 6-7 hours, it really wasn't a lot of work. I lined two cookie sheets with parchment paper, spread a single layer of leaves on each, put them in the oven and set the timer. The first batch was the most labor intensive since I checked on it several times to see how dry it was. After that, all I did was dump the dry leaves into a bowl, spread another layer of leaves, shove them in the oven, set the timer and go about my business. 

As I dumped the dried leaves in the bowl I kind of smashed them up with a meat tenderizer mallet (I have had this handy little kitchen utensil for decades and never once used it for it's intended purpose. Maybe someday...). Because I plan on putting the dry leaves in a tea strainer, I don't want them too fine. I have pulverized them with a mortar and pestle to get a fine powder. However, if you have a large batch you could run them through a coffer or herb grinder. Maybe even a spin in the food processor would work. Even still, you can see how the leaves crumbled pretty fine. 

The leaves on top weren't quite as dry as they should have been. No matter. I left the bowl on the counter overnight and by the next day they were crumbly as well. Seriously, I love passive projects. While the time involved may be long, my involvement is pretty limited. Works for me!

Once the leaves were all dry and pulverized to my satisfaction, I poured the powder into jars. You can use any air tight container or storage bags. This was just what I had on hand. I was so proud of the amount of stevia that I got! This should last me certainly through the winter. It's also given me a new appreciation for the cost of processed stevia I buy from the store. It takes a lot of leaves to fill that little 4 ounce bottle! For as much as I use stevia in my tea, growing and drying my own is certainly worth the effort, especially when my effort is so minimal.

Epilogue: See that bowl up there? Yeah, I decided to make popcorn one night. Since the bowl only held dried leaves I didn't feel that it warranted a complete washing so just wiped it out with paper towels before dumping in my popcorn. Best. Lazy. Move. Ever. If, like me, you like the salty-sweet taste of kettle corn, this is a great non-sugar alternative. Loved it. Tried it out again a few days later by sprinkling the actual leaves onto my popcorn. Yep. Loved it. But don't over do it. A little goes a long way. I've found that when I use too much stevia in anything, it tastes bitter rather than sweet.

Next: The laziness continues! Tomato sauce the easy way.
 

Zucchini: The Squash That Keeps on Giving

I decided last fall that my dad needed to grow zucchini. I decided that this was so because it was fall and I wanted to make more zucchini bread than the one or two zucchini I got from my local CSA last year allowed. 

Somehow, I convinced him despite my mother's protests. Turns out last time he planted zucchini in their garden he planted TWO whole plants. Needless to say, they had more zucchini than they knew what to do with and a lot of wasted space in the garden, not to mention wasted food. This was before I decided I needed to have to zucchini.

What I remember about zucchini growing up is that my grandmother used to grow it and it was mostly disparaged by everyone in the family. Except when it was in zucchini bread or zucchini cake. Have you had zucchini cake? The one my grandmother made was a chocolate cake with chocolate chips on top. Nothing healthy about that creation, but it did taste good. 

At any rate, I decided that zucchini was needed for the zucchini bread. In the fall. What I didn't even think about was that zucchini is not only a fall vegetable. Nope, that baby is pretty much the first plant to start producing very early in the summer. Prolifically. And even though my mom has rediscovered a love of summer squash (which includes the lowly zucchini) there was more that she and my dad could eat alone. Since I was the instigator of this whole thing, those babies were mine. 

Cool. I had a lot of recipes that I had pinned on the Pinterest I wanted to try. Many were in hopes of sharing with my kids who had already expressed their disdain about the vegetable and their reluctance to eat it. Because (and if you've ever grown zucchini, you saw this coming) there was just too many of those things to NOT share with those kids. 

Now I had a mission! And told everyone on Facebook because that means I was really, really serious.

There was so much zucchini, that is exactly what I did. I tried several different recipes and lo and behold! I did come up with two recipes that they liked. Of course, it is too much to ask that they both like the SAME recipe but at least I found one that they each like. 

And as for me? I discovered many ways that I like to eat zucchini, yay! This is such a prolific plant that if you are serious about growing your own food, this is one that you definitely want to have because it really is very versatile. Once you figure out how to use it. 

Here's a list of some of the ways I used the zucchini and our reactions to it:

1. Zucchini subs: No way the kids were eating this one. But since I swore off bread and all things wheat this summer I needed something to eat my meat and cheese on. For smaller zucchini, I sliced them length-wise and scooped out a little of the seeds, filled it in with a spread made from dry Italian dressing mix and Greek yogurt, topped with my favorite meat and cheese. For larger zucchini, I sliced them into rounds and topped the same way. Found the rounds much easier to eat and overall a very tasty and satisfying lunch.
2. Zucchini pizza: Same concept as subs except with pizza toppings. I grilled the zucchini slightly before adding toppings and cooking as pizza. Kids wouldn't touch it, but again, a nice way to go gluten free and still get the pizza flavor. It's all about the toppings for me anyway. 
3. Zucchini chips: We made a variation of this recipe for zucchini Parmesan chips minus the Panko crumbs. Boy loved them, girl tolerated them. I found them to be a nice side dish. 
4. Zucchini tots: I love this one. The girl loved this one. My parents loved it, friends liked it. Boy thinks I am trying to torture him so take it for it's worth. I actually made this so many times that I came up with my own variation on this adaptation of the original recipe. 

Zucchini Tots
(printable copy)

• 4 cup grated zucchini
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup dehydrated onions
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (we like mozzarella, but any kind will work)
• 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• salt and pepper


1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a mini muffin tin and set aside. 
2. Use a food processor to grate zucchini and then place in a strainer to squeeze out excess water from zucchini. Since this is such a large amount of zucchini there will still be a lot of moisture after squeezing but that's okay.
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. 
4. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, fill the muffin tins to the top. The mixture will likely be runny but the quinoa needs this liquid so make sure you are including some in each scoop. Besides, that's where the seasonings are! 
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes until tops are browned. 

The girl and I love the quinoa in these tots over everything else we tried (quinoa flour, oats) because it gives them a crunchy texture, soaks up excess moisture and keeps them from tasting doughy. Yum! Usually makes 2 dozen or more so we eat the first dozen and freeze the rest to heat up later for a quick side dish.

There was a little zucchini drought towards the middle of summer (not to mention actual drought) and I truly thought the season for this summer squash was over. Not so! My dad presented me with 5 very large zucchini at the beginning of September. They had their hands full with the yellow squash (which I have not learned to love) so the zucchini was all mine. As school just started,  I didn't have a lot of time to deal with these 5 giant zucchini so I did what I always do. I froze them.

First I cut them up in manageable chunks and ran them through the food processor with the grating blade which was working out swimmingly until the bowl was full. And I had two zucchini left. Deciding that there is only so much grated zucchini one can use over the course of the winter I decided to slice the last two. Perhaps I will be able to fashion some zucchini chips for the boy. It may not work out, I realize, but it just may work out better since a lot of the water will easily drain off when they defrost. Could be a disaster, might be genius. We'll see. At any rate, I have a lots of zucchini to throw in soups, for bread and of course, zucchini tots (I actually like working with frozen grated zucchini for the aforementioned reason, the water drains off easily, makes better tots).

When all was said and done, I ended up with an obscene amount of zucchini. After all that we all ate this summer. From only one plant. Over 36 cups of frozen zucchini. 

Yes, we'll be eating zucchini whether my kids like it or not although I have to say my summer mission went extremely well. They may not like all things zucchini but they at least like SOME things and I call that a win. 

Next: Growing, Harvesting and Drying Stevia

Freezing Herbs: Parsley and Chives

Previously, I wrote about how easy it is to freeze basil and my love of all things easy. And freezing basil is pretty easy but not quite as easy as freezing parsley and chives. 

In the past, I have treated my parsley the same as my basil by giving it a rough chop in the food processor and freezing it with water in ice cube trays. I was pleased with the results and had lots of parsley all winter long for the many soups I made (I have a soup obsession). And, I did do a small batch of parsley cubes earlier this summer.

However, I also bought some parsley on sale at the grocery store in May. A lot of parsley actually. The store got me on a 2 for 1 deal. I thought, why not? I need it for this recipe and I love parsley (the flat-leaf Italian parsley, much better than the curly stuff you find sometimes on your plate at restaurants). It'll get used up. Except that it didn't. I am ashamed to say that I told my daughter to feed it to the worms (I have a worm composter in the pantry, they are adorable!). She looked at it and said, "Really? It seems fine." And it did seem fine, but I didn't have any time to deal with it. I told her to put it a freezer bag and toss it in the freezer. 

Just harvested parsley on the left, parlsey frozen in May on the right.

I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and it still seemed just fine. Perhaps a darker shade of green but certainly acceptable for soup, pasta or sauces. So when I had all the herbs in the house, pre-frost, I thought, why can't I do all my parsley like that? Certainly easier and besides, all my ice cube trays are tied up with the basil. So I did. Along with my chives, which my kids, strangely, adore. You haven't lived until you've snuggled on the couch with a 9 year old who's been chomping on chives outside all day. Seriously. He thinks this is a great snack. Pungent!

You will need:

• fresh parsley
• fresh chives
• salad spinner (or colander and paper towels)
• freezer bags or containers

Because the stems are as flavorful as the leaves and not a problem in soups which will likely be the bulk of my use, I didn't bother to remove the parsley leaves from the stems. If need be, it will be just as easy to cut the leaves from the stems as I use them. So into the salad spinner they went and under a cold water rinse. I advise shaking the colander around quite a bit to completely rinse the parsley and also to find any hidden surprises like this little lovely gem I found. Since parsley is a fairly low growing herbs the chances are greater that you may find a weed or two hiding in your edibles. 

You will follow the same process for the chives. Throw out any yellow or dry stems and check for weeds. Those things are sneaky, I tell you. 

Once rinsed, give those herbs a good spin in the salad spinner. Since they won't be preserved in water, get them nice and dry. If you are using a colander and paper towels, letting the herbs sit for while before putting them in bags will accomplish the same thing. I did love how the spinner clumped the chives together, though. Talk about making my life easy!

Next step, stick those herbs in a freezer bad or container. I personally prefer to use freezer bags because I can get them really air-tight. You could also use vacuum-sealed bags for this as well. Then when you need either parsley or chives, pull out those bags and simply cut off the herbs that you need with a kitchen scissors or knife and put the rest back in the freezer.

Recap:

You will need:

• Fresh parsley
• Fresh chives
• Salad spinner (or colander and paper towels)
• freezer bags or container

1.  Rinse herbs under cold water, remove any yellow, dry leaves and weeds.
2. Spin dry or leave to drain colander for 1/2 hour or more.
3. Put in freezer bags or containers and put in the freezer.

That's it! It really couldn't be any easier and you have close to fresh-tasting herbs all winter. Just remember that using these herbs frozen will be like using fresh rather than dry so adjust your recipes accordingly if need be. 

Next: What to do with all that zucchini!

 

Freezing Herbs: Basil

Basil is one of my absolute favorite herbs. Every year, I plant way too many plants and eat not nearly enough of it. Until this year! I finally managed to figure out the Basil Botheration!

The trick to basil is to harvest often. At least weekly, if not more. Then there is no need for more plants because the plants themselves will just get thicker and bushier and make more actual basil to eat. The rule with basil, as with most herbs, is don't worry, we'll make more!

Still I ended up planting about 9 plants (3 types of basil, split into 3 plantings each) which was closer to what I need but next year I will stick to a total of 6 plants (2 types, 3 plantings each). This gave me plenty to harvest starting almost immediately and I was able to rotate plants and not have to worry too much about plants bolting. Bolting is bad, very bad, with basil which is why frequent harvesting is so necessary. When basil starts to flower (bolting), the basil tastes bitter. So trim that basil back often, even if you're not eating it or freezing it. Don't worry about waste. Seriously, they make more. 

However, since I am so much smarter this year, I didn't trim and toss to prevent bolting as in previous years. No siree! I actually did something with that basil rather than waiting until close to frost to harvest what was left of my basil plants (not always the best quality basil) to try to freeze and make pesto. I don't even know what I was thinking. My yield was very low and I was out of basil by the beginning of November.

With all the eating that we did this summer, I only had to do 2 major harvests throughout the season and one right before frost. Not bad and not at all time consuming. Seriously, I'm lazy. Anything too complicated and I'm out. So I know of what I speak. Each batch took about a half hour or less to process. Most of the time involved is in the freezer and you're not needed for that part so you can go play. See? Easy!

What you will need:

• fresh basil
• ice cube trays
• food processor with chopping blade (or a sharp knife and mad chopping skills, which will increase the processing time)
• salad spinner or colander and paper towels

Obviously, the first step is to gather that lovely basil from the garden. Keep in mind that if you think you have too much basil, you probably don't. Once the leaves are removed from the stems and chopped, you will have roughly 1/3 the volume you have gathered in your arms. It takes a lot of basil to fill three ice cube trays and the time and energy to do one tray compared to three is about the same. Make it worth your while to pull out that food processor!

Remove leaves from stems and put in your colander or salad spinner. Discard any black, dry or generally icky leaves. I sometimes pull them off, sometimes I find a kitchen scissor is faster. Don't worry if you get some small stems in the mix. Rinse leaves under cold water and give them a good spin or use paper towels to dry them off. 

I know what you're thinking, if I'm going to freeze them in water, why do I have to dry them off? Excellent question! Because it makes the basil much easier to work with. If it's too wet those tiny pieces of basil are just going to stick to the food processor, to the ice trays and to your fingers. If you're anything like me, this is going to just irritate you to no end and make this easy process unpleasant and not so easy. 

In fact, with the Purple Ruffles basil there, I had to leave in the middle of the whole process to run kids somewhere. It sat for about 45 minutes before I got back to them and was very dry. So easy to work with! So if you don't have a spinner, draining them in the colander for about a half hour is another option. Not necessary but just for ease. If you're into that kind of thing. Which I am. 

Next, put the leaves into the food processor and pulse a few times. Don't just turn the food processor on because in a heartbeat you will have pesto and that's not what we're going for here. We just want a rough chop. I've never actually counted how many times I've hit the pulse button but I'd say around 6-12 times. It depends on how much basil you have in the bowl. Basically, you want it to look like this:

(Just a little side note about purple basil: I love it. Good flavor. Looks fantastic in caprese salad, in pasta, even in eggs. It does not make pretty pesto. Tastes great! Looks like baby poo. And then no one will eat it because of the poo resemblance and you will be sad. So just don't.) 

Once roughly chopped, scoop the leaves into the ice trays. I use a measuring spoon and try to get a tablespoon into each one. This, however, is not an exact science. While the measuring spoon is pretty good for scooping, the basil apparently does not like to be scooped. So each cube will be approximately one tablespoon, give or take a bit. I'm not much for measuring when I cook so this is fine with me. For the most part, you're not going to over-basil a dish so I suggest over-filling rather than under-filling. This will be like working with fresh basil so you are more likely to need tablespoons rather than teaspoons anyway. Slowly top the trays off with water. Be careful not to fill them too full or your basil will go floating away. 

This was my last fall harvest and I chopped down about 5 entire plants. As you can see, with all that basil I still wasn't able to manage to fill that last little ice cube up there! Tsk! So, really, when harvesting, more is better. 

Also, I cut the plants down the night before I had time to process them. They sat on the table for about 16 hours before I was able to get to them. They were a little wilted but perked up after the cold water rinse. See? You can do everything "wrong" and it still works out!

In regards to the ice cube trays, these are terrible! My freezer didn't come with trays so I had to go buy some. They are hard to find. Walmart, of course, had them. I had the choice of these at like $1.98 or some ridiculously low price or the complicated metal ones from the 70's at $15. I didn't know how this herb freezing thing was going to go so I went on the cheap. Mistake. I recommend getting some good quality ice trays if you don't already have some. 

Finally, stick those bad boys in the freezer. You don't want to leave them in the freezer too long as the water will evaporate eventually and expose more of the herbs and there is more chance of the herbs taking on flavors you would rather it did not. However, once again, I have left my trays untouched in the freezer for 2 weeks or so. They are fine. Once the cubes are frozen solid however, it's best to put them in a freezer bag or plastic storage container. 

Recap:
 
You will need: 

• fresh basil
• ice cube trays
• food processor with chopping blade (or a sharp knife and mad chopping skills, which will increase the processing time)
• salad spinner or colander and paper towels

1. Remove basil leaves from stems and rinse with cold water. 
2. Spin leaves in salad spinner or drain in colander and dry with paper towels.
3. Pulse leaves in food processor (or chop with a knife) to a rough chop.
4. Scoop basil into ice cube trays estimating each scoop at a generous tablespoon.
5. Slowly top off ice cube trays with water. Be careful not to overfill.
6. Place in the freezer until frozen.
7. Remove from trays and store in freezer bags or containers.

Voila! Homegrown basil all winter long!
This process works with pretty much any herb although is best for those you would use in sauces, soups or anywhere the bit of extra water won't ruin the recipe. 





Next:  Freezing Parsley and Chives. Even easier!

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